[JURIST] US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official profile] will visit Germany, Romania, and the European Union [official website] headquarters in Brussels next week in an attempt to defuse increasing pressure by the EU to respond to allegations that the CIA has been operating secret European prisons [JURIST report] to
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[JURIST] Canadian legislators voted Monday night to defeat the Liberal minority government on a no-confidence motion proposed by the three opposition parties. The 171 to 133 House of Commons [official website] vote forces Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin [official website] to visit Governor General Michaelle Jean [official profile] Tuesday to
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[JURIST] Federal prosecutors filed a proposed jury questionnaire [PDF text] in US district court Monday requesting permission to ask questions regarding the religious beliefs of potential jurors in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui [MSNBC profile; JURIST news archive] for his involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The US
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[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday upheld [opinion text, PDF] a lower court decision striking down a Missouri law restricting late-term abortions. The Infant Protection Act [statute text] was passed in July 2004 and made it unlawful for any person to "cause the
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[JURIST] Leading Monday's environmental law news, the eleventh session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 11) [official website, live webcast] began today with the first session of the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 1) in Montreal, Canada. The
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[JURIST] Armenian electoral officials report that nearly 64 percent of registered voters in the former Soviet republic turned out Sunday to give overwhelming support to a referendum to change the country's constitution [JURIST report] and impose stricter separation of powers between judicial, executive and legislative branches, and allow citizens to
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[JURIST] The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court [official website; JURIST news archive] announced Monday that the Hague-based court expects its first round of trials to start as early as mid-2006. In connection with this week's meeting of states [official website] that have signed the Rome Statute [Rome Statute,
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[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday heard oral arguments in Will v. Hallock [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs] where it will decide whether a plaintiff who sued the federal government for an alleged constitutional violation is barred from suing individual government employees for
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[JURIST] Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) [official website] pleaded guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion and promptly resigned from office. Cunningham admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes in a case that stemmed from an investigation into the sale of
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[JURIST] A group of Egyptian jurists known as The Judges Club said in a statement Monday that, due to over 100 irregularities reported by monitoring judges at polling stations, it did not endorse the results of the parliamentary runoff elections. The statement pointed to "aggression and acts of thuggery by
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[JURIST] Afghanistan's government said Monday that it believed the US military's punishment [JURIST report] for four American soldiers who burned the bodies of two Taliban rebels [JURIST report] was "very lenient." The US military said Saturday that the soldiers, who were caught on camera, would face disciplinary action but not
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[JURIST] Hosam Taher Hosam, a Syrian witness who told the UN committee [UN materials] investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive] that Syrian and Lebanese officials had a hand in the February 14 assassination said Monday that his testimony was false and that he
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[JURIST] Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [BBC profile] has dismissed as "nonsense" allegations [Observer report] by former Iraqi Prime Minister and current parliamentary candidate Iyad Allawi that human rights abuses by Iraqi Shiites [JURIST report] are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein's regime. In an interview [recorded video; excerpted
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[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday summarily reversed a federal appeals court decision that erased the conviction and death sentence of a dual US and British citizen for setting a fire in Ohio that killed a toddler almost 20 years ago. In its per curiam decision [PDF
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[JURIST] Four Ethiopians arrested during violent protests of the country's May elections [JURIST report] said Monday that they will begin a hunger strike to voice opposition to their detentions. Three of the detainees are Coalition for Unity and Democracy [party website] party officials, including the party's leader Hailu Shawel, and
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[JURIST] A top European Union justice official said Monday that EU voting rights could be suspended for any of the 25 bloc nations that are found to have operated secret CIA detention centers for US terror detainees [JURIST report]. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini [official website] said
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[JURIST] China's [JURIST news archive] former minister of land and natural resources, Tian Fengshan [profile], was charged Monday with accepting bribes of nearly 5 million yuan, or $619,000. Tian has been in custody since 2004 when he was removed from office after the former director of a provincial environmental protection
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[JURIST] Senators in the Parliament of Australia [official website] tabled a report [text; additional materials] Monday recommending changes to proposed anti-terror laws [JURIST report; initial draft, PDF]. The current proposal permits suspects to be detained up to 14 days without charge and imposes controls on suspects, including electronic shackles. The
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[JURIST] Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; official website], the detained pro-democracy leader of Myanmar [official website] - formerly Burma - has had her house arrest extended for an unconfirmed time period by the countrys military government, according to a Monday statement from the National League for Democracy (NLD) [advocacy
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Over 100 Ugandan lawyers went on strike Monday to show displeasure with the Ugandan Attorney General and his involvement in possible military attempts to influence the trial of opposition leader Kizza Besigye [BBC profile]. The Ugandan Law Society [profession website] staged the protest that paralyzed the country's High Court after
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[JURIST] Leading Monday's international brief, Kenyan Vice-President Moody Awori has announced that the Kenyan government is outlawing all rallies by the Orange Movement, the anti-constitution coalition that handed Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] a solid defeat [JURIST report] in last week's referendum [JURIST report]. Awori said that the ban
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[JURIST] Viveca Novak, a TIME magazine reporter who covered the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, has been asked to testify by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] in the leak investigation [JURIST news archive] which is now going before a second grand jury [JURIST report]. Novak has
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[JURIST] The trial of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] resumed Monday, but was quickly adjourned until December 5 to allow two of Hussein's co-defendants, including former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, to find replacements for members of the defense team killed [JURIST report] since the last trial session on October
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